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Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

Homestore CEO near trial's end

The trial of Homestore.com's founder reached its final phase Tuesday with a prosecutor telling jurors the then-CEO knew his company was recording bogus revenue, and that he tried to use 9-11 as a red herring.

Stuart Wolff, 42, was chief executive officer of the Westlake Village-based online real estate listings company from its founding until early 2002, when he departed amid a probe of its finances.

During a two-month trial in Los Angeles, federal prosecutors laid out evidence to back up their charges that Wolff engaged in conspiracy to commit securities fraud, insider trading and falsifying the books of the company, which earlier this year changed its name to Move Inc.

Southwest to test assigning seats

DALLAS -- Southwest Airlines Co. will test assigning seats to travelers, another indication that the maverick carrier might get in line with other U.S. airlines by junking its first- come, first-served seating system.

Passengers will be assigned seats on about 200 flights from San Diego for several weeks beginning July 10, an airline spokesman said Tuesday.

The airline wants to know whether assigning seats will slow down Southwest's ability to unload incoming planes and board passengers for the next flight. It takes Southwest about 25 minutes on average to turn a plane around. Any delay can add to the airline's costs.

Home building rebounds in May

WASHINGTON -- Construction of new homes and apartments, down for three straight months, staged what might turn out to be a temporary rebound in May.

Despite the one-month improvement, analysts said higher mortgage rates would continue to buffet the once high-flying housing market for the next two years. But they said potential home buyers could see some benefits in the form of more builder incentives being offered to move unsold inventory.

The Commerce Department reported that builders started construction at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.957 million units last month, a better-than-expected 5 percent gain from April when construction had fallen 5.5 percent.

Lego Group set to cut 1,200 jobs

NEW YORK -- Lego Group, whose iconic plastic building blocks have entertained millions of children for more than 70 years, said Tuesday that it will be shedding 1,200 of its worldwide jobs to remold itself in an era when kids prefer playing with electronic gadgets.

The Denmark-based company, which is one of the last to produce toys in the U.S., plans to close its U.S. manufacturing plant and lay off 300 people there in early 2007. About 900 of its employees in Denmark also will be sacked over the next three years.

The production from Enfield, Conn., is to be moved to Mexico, where costs are lower, the group said in a statement. The company's distribution facility in Enfield will also be affected, Lego said, without providing details.

Equifax names in stolen laptop

ATLANTA -- Equifax Inc., one of the nation's three major credit bureaus, said Tuesday that a company laptop containing employee names and Social Security numbers was stolen from an employee who was traveling by train near London.

The theft, which could affect as many as 2,500 of the Atlanta-based company's 4,600 employees, happened May 29 and all employees were notified June 7, spokesman David Rubinger said.

Employee names and partial and full Social Security numbers were on the computer's hard drive, though Rubinger said it would be almost impossible for the thief to decipher the information because it was streamed together.